Quality Costing
Quality Costing Barrie G. Dale Senior Lecturer and Director UMISI Quality Management Centre Manchester and James J. Plunkett Late Iotal Quality Management Project Officer UMISI Quality Management Centre Manchester SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
First edition 1991 1991 Barrie G. Dale and James J. Plunkett Originally published by Chapman & Hali in 1991 Typeset in 10112 Palatino by Input Typesetting Ltd Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research ar private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the UK Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may not be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction only in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK, or in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the appropriate Reproduction Rights Organization outside the UK. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the terms stated here should be sent to the publishers at the UK address printed on this page. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Dale, Barrie G. Quality costing. 1. Quality control 1. Title II. Plunkett, J. J. 658.562 ISBN 978-0-412-38860-6 ISBN 978-1-4615-3870-7 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-3870-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dale, B. G. Quality costing / Barrie G. Dale and James J. Plunkett.-1st ed. p. em. Inc1udes bibliographieal referenees and index. 1. Quality eontrol-costs. 2. Quality eontrol-costs-case studies. 3. Manufactures-Quality control-case studies. 1. Plunkett, James J. II. Title. TS156.D34 1991 658.5'62-dc20 90--49713 CIP
Contents Preface ix 1 Quality costing: an introduction 1 1.1 The role of quality costing in total quality management 1 1.2 What are quality costs? 5 1.3 Quality costs and in-built inefficiencies 6 1.4 Quality costs and delivery performance 7 1.5 A short history of quality costing 8 1.6 Why are quality costs important? 11 1.7 Published quality cost data 12 1.8 Why measure quality costs? 16 1.9 Accounting, accountants and quality costing 16 References 20 2 Definitions of quality costs 23 2.1 The importance of definitions 23 2.2 Quality cost categories 25 2.3 Quality cost elements 28 2.4 Difficulties associated with quality cost definitions 30 2.5 Concessions, modifications and engineering changes 33 References 34 3 Collection of quality costs 36 3.1 Establishing the objectives for quality cost collection 36 3.2 Available advice on quality cost collection 38 3.3 Various approaches to quality cost collection 40 3.4 Ease of collection 43
vi CONTENTS 3.5 The level of detail in the costs collected 3.6 Accuracy of data 3.7 The people involved in quality cost collection 3.8 The views of quality managers and accountants 3.9 Commitment of senior management References 45 46 48 49 49 50 4 Reporting of quality costs 52 4.1 Introduction 52 4.2 Extracting quality costs from existing company systems 52 4.3 Some fundamentals of quality cost reporting 53 4.4 Reporting formats 55 4.5 'Economic cost of equality' models 56 References 58 5 Uses of quality costs 59 5.1 Categories of uses 59 5.2 Promoting quality as a business parameter 60 5.3 Facilitating performance measures and improvement activities 64 5.4 Planning and control 67 References 68 6 Case study, company 1 70 6.1 Introduction 70 6.2 Company quality control and accounting systems 72 6.3 Detection and measurement of quality-related costs. 73 6.4 Discussion of findings 84 6.5 Presentation and uses of quality-related costs 90 6.6 Overall review and comparison with other data 91 6.7 Miscellaneous points arising from the study 93 References 94 7 Case study, company 2 95 7.1 Introduction 95 7.2 Identification of sources of quality costs 97 7.3 Sources of costs identified from systems and procedures 97 7.4 Sources of costs identified from accounts ledgers 100 7.5 Applicability of BS 6143 at company 2 102 7.6 Discussion of findings 111 7.7 Cost report and comparison with other data 114 7.8 Presentation and uses of cost data 114 References 116
CONTENTS vii 8 Case study, company 3 117 8.1 Introduction 117 8.2 Identification of sources of quality costs 118 8.3 Cost sources identified from procedures and systems 118 8.4 Quality cost collection and analysis 121 8.5 Quality cost reporting 130 8.6 Comparison of performance with other published data 134 8.7 Presentation and uses of quality cost information 137 References 139 9 Case study, company 4 140 9.1 Introduction 140 9.2 Sources of quality costs 141 9.3 Measurement of quality costs 145 9.4 Comparison of cost reports 146 9.5 Discussion of costs 150 9.6 Quality cost reporting 151 9.7 Uses of quality costs 154 References 156 10 Setting up a quality costing system 158 10.1 Introduction 158 10.2 Quality costing pointers 158 10.3 Quality costing do's and don'ts 161 10.4 Concluding summary 162 Index 164
Preface This book is one of the few English language texts devoted to the subject of quality costing. The material is based on research work carried out by the authors at the Manchester School of Managememt, UMIST, over the last nine years or so. The research has been mainly in manufacturing organizations but work has also been conducted in non-manufacturing concerns (e.g. marketing and service operations, and commerce). The book will provide managers with sound practical advice on how to define, collect, analyse, report and use quality costs. The text covers all the main aspects of quality costing and an attempt has been made to structure the book in the sequence by which organizations should set about a quality costing exercise. The book opens by examining the background of quality costing. This is followed by chapters on definitions of quality costs, collection of quality costs, analysis and reporting of quality costs, and the uses of quality costs. Examples from manufacturing organizations and nonmanufacturing situations are used throughout the first five chapters to illustrate the key points discussed in the text. The next four chapters are case studies which provide considerable detail on quality costing in companies from the mechanical and electronics industries. To preserve anonymity the companies are not referred to by name. The case studies illustrate how four different companies have set about analysing their main areas of operation to highlight where quality costs were incurred and how they were collected and reported. A deliberate attempt is made to present the situation as encountered by the authors. In this way, potential cost collectors can gain some insight into the type of situations and difficulties they may encounter and the issues which need to be resolved in undertaking a quality costing, exercise. The case
x PREFACE studies also include guidance on potential sources of cost information and the typical questions which occur in a quality cost collection exercise. The final chapter is a summary of the previous nine and provides guidance on how companies can go about setting up a quality costing system. There is considerable interest from Western manufacturing industry, public sector organizations, commerce, and the service sector in the subject of total quality management (TQM) and the process of quality improvement. However, the majority of organizations, certainly in the first few years of the TQM journey, do need to justify the cost-effectiveness of the investment in a process of continuous quality improvement to their main board, in particular when it is located in an offshore country, and to shareholders. Consequently, an increasing number of organizations are now actively engaged in the collection and reporting of quality costs and others are looking for sound practical advice on how to go about it. It is also not uncommon to find organizations who, after collecting and using the results of quality costing for some years, wish to critical-analyse their activities in order to make more use of the data. This book provides useful advice to organizations setting out on a quality costing exercise and to those in the early stages of designing a quality cost collection and reporting system and will help to prevent cost collectors going up blind alleys. It will also assist those organizations already collecting costs by giving pointers on how to develop and refine their current methods. The book will prove useful to practitioners, academics, and undergraduate and postgraduate students from a variety of disciplines; total quality management is not restricted to one group of people or discipline. People studying for professional examinatons which involve aspects of TQM will also find the book to be of benefit. Quality managers, technical managers, technical specialists and accountants should find the book of particular interest as they are usually the personnel involved in quality costing. The Chief Executive Officer and board members will also benefit from reading the book; they will see in the text hard evidence of the financial benefits accruing to an organization from pursuing a process of continuous quality improvement. Dr Jim Plunkett, after a brave fight against cancer, died mid-way through the preparation of this book. The book is dedicated to the memory of Jim and provides some recognition of his first-class research into the subject of quality costing. B. G. Dale Manchester School of Management, UMIST